I would like to again read and discuss the teachings of an important ancestor of our lineage in China. named Dai Doshin. Dai means great doctor, great medical doctor, and Doshin is the way of faith. And he wrote a book, he lived to 580 to 651, and he actually did some writing, which is called Fundamental Expedient Teachings for Calming the Mind, which becomes enlightened.

[01:20]

I expound this teaching of mine for those whose causal nexus and capacities are ripe You must go by the Lankavatara Sutra, make the mind of Buddha number one, and go by the one-practice samadhi, which is taught in the Prajnaparamita Sutra spoken by Manjushri. If you are mindful of the Buddha mind, you are Buddha.

[02:43]

If you have false mindfulness, then you are an ordinary person. The Prajna Sutra spoken by Manjushri says, quote, World Honored One, what is the one-practice samadhi? Buddha said, being linked to the realm of reality through its oneness is called the one-practice samadhi. Manjushri asked the World Honored One the meaning of the one-practice samadhi, and the Buddha replied, ìUltimate reality has a unified form.

[03:49]

Fixing your awareness on ultimate reality is the one-practice samadhi. Fixing your awareness on ultimate reality. Fixing your awareness on uniformity or on one form. This is the One Practice Samadhi. If men and women want to enter one-practice samadhi, first they should learn about the Prajnaparamita and cultivate their learning accordingly. Later, they will be capable of the one-practice samadhi, and if they do not retreat from or spoil their link with the realm of reality,

[05:03]

of the inconceivable, unobstructed formlessness. If sons or daughters of noble families want to enter the one-practice samadhi, they should first listen to the perfection of wisdom teaching and cultivate their practice in terms of what it says. Later, they will be able to enter the one-practice samadhi and their awareness will be like ultimate reality itself. their awareness will be like ultimate reality, free from retrogression, indestructible, inconceivable, lacking obstruction and without form. I want to say a little bit.

[06:08]

One is this thing about reality is characterized by one mark or one sign. Or anyway, your reality is uniform. Or reality has a unified form. So being linked to reality, how do you connect with reality? Through oneness. And connecting with reality through oneness is called the one-factor samadhi. I'm not sure, but it looks like Eric went for a walk on the newly cultivated beds here in the garden and made these big holes.

[07:33]

And so I spent the morning working on the beds, sort of fluffing up the holes and readjusting the little plants, little lettuces and stuff, encouraging them to continue And it looks like, after I did that, it looks like he or some other creature with large feet went for another walk and so I'll be spending this morning also working on the beds. And then I'll do a little experiment. After I finish them, I'll keep them indoors and see if they reappear. Let's see if the holes are here. See if the holes are here. In the beds. So I'll be able to tell if it's him.

[08:35]

Anyway, while I was working on the beds, the words came to my mind. I was thinking, I think I was thinking sort of of Helen. What came to my mind would apply not just to Helen, but to I could just say she, and it would apply to she. The she in the form of women, the she in the form of something inside all of us, a she, there's a she inside of us. And what came to my mind is, she will continue to see disturbance until the field is uniform. she will continue to perceive disturbance until the field is uniform. If you look at a rough field, a rough field, you probably will be able to look at it and you will see that it's uniform and you will not feel disturbed.

[09:50]

Do you understand? But if then someone comes with a tractor and makes big gouges in the fields, you will feel disturbed. You will think that the field is disturbed because you saw it as uniform and then it was cut once or twice or many times. When it's cut, you feel disturbed. But then if you come through, and make lots of cuts in the field so the field is all evenly cut and it has one quality again, then you feel calm again. Or she feels calm. So there's these holes in the garden and I fixed some of them. Actually, I fixed most of the holes, but then there were still some places where there weren't any holes. So the places where I fixed were fluffier than the places that weren't fixed, because the places that were fixed were sort of watered down.

[10:51]

So even though some areas had never been touched by his feet or whatever, there was still some disturbing feeling because some areas had been redone and others hadn't. So I felt in my own mind that if I worked the whole area, the feeling would be uniform and the mind would be calm. Also the image came to mind of an English lady having perhaps a Sunday tea party and putting out nice linen on the table and then having some animal run over the table and make little muddy marks on the tablecloth. So you'd either have to take the tablecloth away or wash all those spots, or make the whole tablecloth brown.

[11:58]

If you could even it out so it looked uniform, it would again calm the mind. So there's something about our minds such that when we prepare some surface and it becomes disrupted, we feel disrupted. Or when it becomes uniform again, the mind settles. So this samadhi is a samadhi to somehow connect with and appreciate the uniform quality of whatever experience we have. That uniform or that united form, not only does it calm us when we appreciate the united form, but it also connects us to ultimate reality through that unified quality through that oneness. And again, I think you maybe can feel that in yourself. He says that if you can connect immediately with this unified form of reality or through oneness, if you can directly

[13:16]

link yourself and meditate on oneness, you can immediately do the one-practice samadhi. However, he also says that before you do that, first study the Prajnaparamita Sutras, because even this oneness is empty. You should understand that you're not connecting with anything at all really. So with the protection of the Prajnaparamita teachings, you can connect with the unified quality of mind. And this will be the one-factor samadhi. So good men and good women, if you want to enter the one-factor samadhi, you must be empty and at ease and abandon all confused ideas. Not grasping at forms and appearances, bind your heart to one Buddha and concentrate on evoking the Buddha's name.

[14:29]

Wherever the Buddha may be, straighten your body, face towards it, if you can keep the continuous mindfulness of this one Buddha, in this mindfulness you can see all the Buddhas of past, present and future. Why? The merit of mindfulness of one Buddha is infinite and boundless and with the merits accomplished by all the infinite numbers of Buddhas. one with the merits accomplished by all the infinite numbers of Buddhas. The inconceivable Buddhadharma is everywhere equal and without distinction. All Buddhas ride upon one suchness. All Buddhas ride upon one suchness, achieving supreme, true awakening, equipped with all the countless accomplishments and virtues and infinite elephants.

[15:43]

All those who enter the one-partha samadhi like this know that there is no sign of difference in the realm of reality of all the countless Buddhas. Whatever you do, whatever they do, their bodies, minds, and inner hearts are forever at the site of enlightenment. All their actions and conduct are bodhi. This is referring to these good men and good women who practice Samadhi. And again, as I mentioned before, underlining that this mindfulness of Buddha is without thinking of the Buddha as an object. As Dogen says, no matter how fast you run, you'll never be able to catch a speck of dust.

[16:55]

You'll never be able to meet a speck of dust. And if you make Buddha as an object of the speck of dust, you can never meet Buddha. As soon as you meet Buddha, you're just simply deluded. As soon as you don't meet any objects, as soon as you can't catch up with one speck of dust, that is Buddha's mind. And not seeing any objects before you is immediately calming and is called mindfulness of Buddha. The Contemplation of Samantabhadra Sutra says, this is the third of the three main texts of Tendai Buddhism and that book called The Threefold Lotus, this is the third sutra in that book.

[18:41]

In that sutra it says, in the sea of all karmic barriers we see that they all arise from false forms. If you want to repent, sit upright and be mindful of reality. This is called supreme repentance. So we've been talking about from the beginning of beginningless time we are by the first act of karma completely trapped and in absolute bondage and repentance of all this endless karma is accomplished in this way, to sit upright, mindful of reality. This is called supreme repentance. So we see, for some delusion, we see our bondage in this world.

[19:59]

before us and also to see that as not before us, as not an object, to see the unified quality of reality, to see the unified form of reality in this delusion, this current delusion right here. This is for those who want to enter the One Practice Samadhi, those who do not wish to, however, do not have to do this. Okay, well, I'll read a little bit more here. Eliminate the mentality of the three poisons, the mind that clings to objects. Without objects, these three poisons cannot function. If the mind is aware and contemplating continuously, mindful of Buddha, and again

[21:02]

You know what mindfulness of Buddha means? No objects before you. Continuously mindful with no objects before you, suddenly there will be clarity and stillness and there will be no more thoughts linked to objects. The great Prajnaparamita Sutra says, to have no objects of thought is called mindfulness of Buddha. have no objects of thought is called mindfulness of Buddha. What is meant by having no objects of thought? What is meant by having no objects of thought? Being mindful of the Buddha mind is called having no objects of thought. There is no separate Buddha apart from mind.

[22:06]

There are no other... and no other mind apart from Buddha. To be mindful of Buddha is to be mindful of mind. And mind can never have itself as an object. To seek Buddha is to seek mind. To seek mind is to seek Buddha. Why? Consciousness has no shape or form. Buddha has no form. Knowing this truth is pacifying the mind. Knowing this truth is calming the mind. With constant mindfulness of Buddha, grasping at objects does not arise. One of the characteristics that runs through this school, the main characteristic is called the practice of suchness, which is simply this one practice, samadhi, that you sit upright or stand upright or think upright and you connect yourself to ultimate reality through its unified form.

[23:25]

This is the practice of suchness. However, another characteristic of this school is that the repeated reference to calming The name of the school is the calming the mind school, pacifying the mind. All these ancestors bring this up. For example, this wonderful guy, Gunabhadra, who in the early renditions of the Zen lineage, Gunabhadra was said to be one of our ancestors, but then they changed and decided that Prajnatara was better. But Gunabhadra was up there for a while. He's a translator of the Lankavatara Sutra. So in the early days, when they wanted to pay homage to the Lankavatara Sutra, they thought Gunabhadra would be a good ancestor. And I think he is a good ancestor. Anyway, he says, for those who intend to be Buddhas... In this book, they have him as Bodhidharma's teacher, right?

[24:35]

Gunabhadra as Bodhidharma's teacher. For those who intend to be Buddhas, you should first learn to pacify the mind. You should first learn to calm the mind. Before the mind is pacified, even good things are not good, so much the worst for evil. When the mind becomes pacified and still, neither good nor evil have any basis. neither good nor evil has any basis. The Avatamsaka Sutra says phenomena do not see each other, phenomena do not know each other. Early on Buddha said don't do any bad things, do all good things, purify your mind. Later they changed it to don't do bad things, do good, all the good things

[25:39]

Help other people. Well, you cannot possibly avoid doing all bad things. You cannot do any good things if your mind is not pacified. You can try, but if your mind's not pacified, when you try to do good things, you'll do bad things. However, when you try to do bad things, you will do bad things. That's one thing you can be successful at, if your mind's not pacified. If your mind's pacified, you can't do bad things. Why? Because they have no basis. Also, you can't do good things if they have no basis. This is called practicing good. Okay? No? I was kind of stuck earlier. What? You said the mind can't be the object of the mind. Right. In sadhana instruction we teach to observe thoughts coming and going. Right. Well, that's not consciousness though, that's sort of what we call objects of mind.

[26:44]

Okay? That's not mind itself. Mind cannot be aware of itself, it can only be aware of these concomitant factors like emotions and feelings and things like that. Does that make sense? Well, we talk about in Abhidharma mind and mental states, have you heard about that? Yes, I'm familiar with that classification. But also, mind and its objects are the same, is what I've understood. Mind and its objects are the same? Yes, the same stuff. Objects are not different from mind. So, if thoughts come into mind, how can thought be different from mind? When you say mind and objects are the same, that means that mind cannot have any objects of thought. If mind has objects of thought, then mind and objects of thought are different. So what then are objects of thought? You mean what kind of things are they?

[27:50]

Yeah. Like feelings? The four skandhas. The four skandhas are objects of thought. I see. So they're separate from consciousness. Right. Form, feelings, conceptions, formations. These are the objects of thought. Those four skandhas. Okay? Okay. You can have those as objects. But mind itself, consciousness itself, cannot be aware of itself except through these other four skandhas. When they are not separate, when they are the same, this is called emptiness, or a relief from this whole machinery. Then subject and object are not two. Meditating on the oneness of mind and mental state, or mind and objects, or subject and Meditating on that oneness is the same as meditating on the emptiness of the separation, or the baselessness of that distinction. Meditating on emptiness is the same as meditating on oneness, because all phenomena, the entire universe, has one form which is called emptiness.

[28:58]

Okay? And to have no objects before you is pacifying the mind. So this first ancestor in China, or before China, Bodhidharma's teacher maybe, and Bodhidharma, and the Quokka, and Tsong-tsang, and now Dao-shin, and Dao-shin's disciple Hung-ren, say, having no objects of thought, that is a calm mind. It's better than a calm mind actually because it's not only a calm mind, it's a mind that is meditating on reality. It's not meditating on reality, it is like reality because it is one. It has no objects. Are they suggesting a practice?

[30:08]

Is this a practice or is this a state you reach? It's a practice. It's a samadhi practice. It's a one practice samadhi. And uh, yeah. So you, to practice this you would practice not having any objects before you. Right. What do you have to do before you get there? It said, first of all, study the Prajnaparamita scriptures, okay, and then practice linking yourself to the unified reality, or the oneness. Connect yourself to ultimate reality through meditating on oneness. And oneness is emptiness. So I have to study the Prasanna Paramita Sutras, then practice them. The one practice, Samadhi. Constantly meditating on the one characteristic of all experience.

[31:11]

All experience is unified, or all experience is empty, or all experience is just the causal nexus. Same way, three ways to talk about it. It's not that there's no reality sound, but there's reality. Is it the reality, the same reality for all beings? Is it the same reality for all people? Everybody has their own take on it, right? But everybody's take is unified. Each person has their own experience moment by moment, but all those different experiences are unified, have one form. And if you appreciate that one form of all your experiences, through your changes, you go through. That one form of all your experiences is the same one form of all my experiences is the same one form of all of our experiences. That's the one practice of Samadhi.

[32:20]

That's Buddha's mind. I think to distinguish it from conventional reality, in conventional reality we should recognize and honor conventional reality where things are different, where there's a big difference between a Blue Jay and a Robin, where we don't appreciate in conventional reality we don't appreciate necessarily that it's the same, that the blue jade in the cottage cheese is fundamentally the same as the blue jade outside of the cottage cheese. We appreciate that difference in conventional reality and we know the rules of those differences, so then they call it ultimate reality and conventional reality. In other words, we give the word reality to the world of delusion. We honor the world of delusion, we call it reality.

[33:21]

It is a reality. But there's another reality which coexists with it and is not separate where everything is the same. And if you don't know how to appreciate conventional reality then you have to work at that first. And it says here, if you're not able to do this practice, for those who are not yet able to do this practice, they give you another practice which will help you appreciate conventional reality. In other words, start with a Buddha. as like something separate from yourself, as an object. Work with it that way, until you can get a feeling for working with it in a oneness way.

[34:24]

Yes? Well, I guess my first reaction is, if that doesn't go down for you, then it's a present. Why don't you work on it for a while? I kind of don't want to chew it up for you. So why don't you chew on it for a while and see what you come up with. Is that all right? Yes. I still have a problem with what Catherine brought up. It said awareness is not aware of itself. Awareness cannot be aware of itself.

[35:29]

That would be for me the expression of a deep experience. Awareness becomes aware of itself. And that's exactly what I would say. Well, you would say awareness becomes aware of itself is a deep experience. As a description of a profound experience of myself, I would say that's the most accurate way of describing what happens is awareness finally becomes aware of itself. Okay, but it's awareness becomes aware of itself through things which are not usually considered to be awareness. For example, you don't usually consider me to be your awareness. You don't usually think of me as awareness, but you see that I'm awareness itself. then that's a pretty deep experience. When you just understand that that's mind, that that's consciousness, that's a deep experience.

[36:29]

Generally speaking, your body is a deeper mind than what you usually think your mind is. But when you realize that actually your body is your mind, when you actually see that your body is awareness, that's a deep experience for the awareness. But awareness cannot be aware of awareness because awareness has no form. Awareness being aware of awareness has to have separation. To be aware of something, you have to have separation from it. And it can't be separate from itself. But it can be separate from itself in terms of, for example, the physical world, which are a result of it. but by interposing an organ between consciousness and something else, consciousness can seem to be aware of something. This is called conscious life. Without this separation there's no possibility of awareness.

[37:34]

And when awareness overcomes the illusion of the separation, because it's actually one event, awareness is not this or this, awareness is this whole thing, is when the awareness is separated from something and then is aware of that something through that separation. That's what awareness really is. When you see that the whole thing is what's happening, that's called seeing that the separation between this and this is illusory. And that this is actually all this knows. And this illuminates this. And this illuminates this. Then there's no objects of thought. But this cannot be aware of this. This can never see itself. The awareness itself cannot see itself. It only sees itself through things which are really given. Like mountains are your mind. And stars are your mind. But without the stars and other people and trees and stuff, the mind can never ... and feelings and emotions and so on.

[38:42]

The mind can't see itself. That's what I mean. And when you see the world as not an object anymore, But as an illumination of yourself, that's what we call Buddha's minds. That's called mindfulness of Buddha, when everything is illuminating your mind. Then if you're mindful of Buddha, well this is thinking Buddha. Thinking Buddha. You're a thinking, huh? That's connected with you are not it, it actually is you. Yeah, same thing. You are not it, it actually is you. Of course I'm not really Vanya, but Vanya really is me. If I was Vanya, it wouldn't be very impressive to me to find out that I was. What's impressive is for the things that I'm separate from to realize that I'm one with. This is what's really a relief. It's a big relief. So we practice that way. Without taking these things as having a basis, you don't then sort of make these things into things that are now you.

[39:43]

The whole thing has no basis. So that's in the background all the time when you're studying the mind. But is it still running? I would have assumed it was done. I think it's gone. Yeah, the tape isn't gone. I can still see it. Yeah, I don't know. It's still clean, so it's not... Oh, no, it didn't stop. I'm sure that stopped. Well, it goes pretty long. I also looked at the time. It's been three minutes. Oh, yeah. I think you're surprised there's at least three minutes. Three minutes is a long time when you're thinking about recording, but actually three minutes is not so long. We've got to go to the next room and get a tape or something. Yeah, that's true.

[40:45]

Uh-huh. I don't remember the stories, but I played the game a lot. I even play it now with the kids at school. Never saw it. And that's, you know, I played it 30 years ago. We had a discussion in Choson about sentient beings and emptiness.

[41:57]

And we talked about sentient beings or delusion. Delusion and sentient beings, same thing. Delusions, emptiness and the universe. There's no emptiness floating around someplace, sort of unattached emptiness. Emptiness is emptiness of something. Emptiness is always riped by some form, some delusion, some feeling, some idea. Emptiness is the true nature of delusion. What did you say? Universe. It's the true nature of the universe too. The universe is delusion. And everything in the universe, including the one practice of Samadhi and Buddha and everything, is empty, has no basis. But there's not this great emptiness someplace, it's every little thing has a great emptiness. Or that's what's so great about emptiness is it's willing to hang out with little tiny things.

[43:01]

It's always sort of, all things are kind of escorted by emptiness, or underwritten by emptiness. Isn't that how we know the things are there? Isn't that how we see the things or know that things are things? It's because of emptiness that we can really see what things are. And it's because we forget emptiness that we can't see what things are. Okay? So if I respect emptiness, then I can really see who less is. And you can really be who you are free of all my preconceptions if I can remember emptiness. So emptiness allows us all to be completely free moment by moment because for the very fact of the causal nexus, because of the very fact that we are nothing other than all the causes that make us. We all depend on things and we have no inherent nature, therefore we are always completely free.

[44:04]

Because we're totally conditioned, we're totally free. If we had an inherent existence, well then we'd have to be just like we are. Mona would have to be like Mona really is, and Gloria would have to be like Gloria, and Michael would have to be like Michael is, and then he's stuck. Maybe pretty good people, but they'd be stuck people anyway. But since they lack inherent existence, since there's no real basis to any of us, we're completely free. And how do we express our freedom? Like this. Moment by moment we do this stuff we do. And it's totally conditioned and that's why it's totally free. So I just want to say about this thing about the universe needs the people and the people need more people. Don't worry about the people needing the universe, but the universe needs the people and emptiness needs the people. It's like emptiness.

[45:19]

needs our life to play out all the causes and conditions which are emptiness. And just reading Odyssey, you've got this guy, this person, this man named Odysseus, and at the beginning of the book they say, it says, Tell me, Muses. No. Tell in me, Muses, the story of that man, foremost of all contenders, wandering for years. Tell the story of a fighter, of a contender, of a killer The strict understanding of the first precept would be that if you contend, this is a violation.

[46:31]

Just being contentious breaks the first precept. Even me saying what I just said is kind of contentious. Muse is telling me the story of the foremost contender. Reminds me of one of the lines from On the Waterfront. I could have been a contender, Charmy. You know On the Waterfront? Well, like, you know, there's lots of boxers, right, in the boxing world, professional boxing world, lots of them. But there's only ten contenders for the world championship. So this guy in this movie said, Martin Brando said, I could have been a contender. I could have been in the top ten. I had a chance.

[47:36]

The contenders can actually fight the champion usually. Usually the champion won't fight non-contenders. Because it would be too embarrassing if you lost to one of them, so you sort of have to get in that top ten to fight the champion. Anyway, this is the foremost contender in the world. And the gods loved Ulysses, loved Odysseus. They loved him for two reasons. One, he as a child was also foremost in making offerings to Zeus and all the other gods. He spent a lot of his wealth in burning up stuff to the gods, making sacrifice to the gods. So they liked him for that, but they also liked him because they liked to watch him fight. They liked to watch him fight. These gods never died. And you know, like,

[48:38]

If Zeus' wife Hera starts picking at him too much, he could just take a little thunderbolt and sort of zap it over there and he could break her into a thousand pieces. Okay? He could do that. But guess what? She'll be there tomorrow in a thousand pieces. He has to face it. And he not only has to face it tomorrow, but he has to face it for millions of years. Then she heals after that. So he doesn't ever attack her, actually, but he does attack his kids and breaks the arms and legs of his kids. And he breaks their arms and legs for hundreds of years, they're broken, but still it's like nothing, you know. And then they're back again and he has to face the results of that. But people, now people, when they break their arms and legs, they die. This was really fun for the gods to see people. Then this harmful stuff that they do to each other really counts. It's like the end of their life. And because of that, they take the whole thing much more seriously.

[49:45]

The gods really can't take things that seriously. The only thing that they can take really seriously are two things. One would be, if there were no more people acting out their stuff for them, that would bother them a lot, or if people didn't honor them. Those are the two things that they get upset about. Well, it sounds like the gods act out the same stuff for people. They do, but they can't do it as well as we can. Because they're not really worried. They're not impermanent. They're not impermanent. So they really can't get into it the way we can. So they need us. The gods need us. The gods need Ulysses to act out battle. They need us to act out struggle. What are these gods? These are the forces of biological process. the immortal qualities that will be there as long as there's any life or consciousness.

[50:49]

And consciousness is what makes the physical universe. The physical universe needs sentient beings. Without sentient beings there's no physical universe. But the other thing that I was really impressed with finishing the book was that this fighter, this stupid fighter, who fought all the way through Troy and all the way through this book, still at the very end, the very end, after he kills all the suitors, then the families of the suitors come to get him, some of the families come to get him. And with the aid of the gods, he just completely smashes them. And there's a few left. And his protecting god, Athena, comes in a strong voice through a human form called Mentor and gives Mentor, giving the advice, �Stop!� And everybody drops, all Odysseus men drop their swords and the other guys run back to town.

[51:59]

And then Odysseus rears himself up again, picks his sword up and starts running after He's gonna kill all of them. This is a person, this is the hero. This is the one that God's loved. They love him for two reasons. One, he honors them. Two, he's a killer. It seems like you really love the business too. But I wonder, you know, I'm just saying no to the gods as well, and not act out all the stuff that they want. Hello! That's Odysseus. He's the foremost of that sentiment you just expressed. No, no. If you try to fight acting out the stuff, that's Odysseus.

[53:03]

That is that quality. See, Athena, the goddess of skill and war and patron saint of soldiers, she is an immortal force. The spirit of a soldier, of a killer, is an immortal force. If you try not to act it out, you are simply acting it out. To contend against that force is that force itself. And hello. Okay? We may not all be foremost of the contenders, but we all have the contender to some extent. And if we don't like the contender, that's the contender. And if we're good at not liking the contender, then we're a good contender. But the gods like this quality. They appreciate it. If the actor

[54:07]

honors them. But even at the end, this guy who's been through all this trouble because of his fighting, at the very end he's going to destroy all of them. And the Goddess tells him to stop, but he doesn't. Then Zeus sent down a lightning bolt in front of the Goddess, and then she really tells him to stop, and then he stops. Finally he stops. For now. Yes. Well, two things, one is because the gods to me seem not to be anywhere else except, I mean they don't act like we, but I mean they are we, the gods, we are the actors of the gods, we are the gods, but also the gods like fighting but the gods also like loving. Oh yes, there's another one called Aphrodite, that's another god that you can't get away

[55:10]

Yeah, it's a balance. And they want their tribute too. That's right. And the story of Amor and Psyche is a story of what Aphrodite does, what Venus does when she doesn't get enough respect. What does she do? She tries to kill the Psyche. That's what she'll do. If you don't pay honor to Aphrodite, She will effort, the force of love will destroy the psyche. She will send her son to kill the psyche. However, the son will fall in love with the psyche. The psyche wasn't fighting in the first place, the psyche was just being so beautiful, as the psyche is actually more beautiful than the God of beauty. The God of love isn't as attractive to human beings as the psyche.

[56:16]

The psyche, the human psyche, is more attractive to us than the epitome of beauty. And therefore, if the psyche doesn't, and if people don't pay homage to that, then a drama will occur between the force of love and the psyche itself. The force of love will come to kill the psyche but it will also fall in love with the psyche. But the psyche then will not believe that this love is really trustworthy and will try to find out about it and will destroy it. And then will spend a long time trying to reunite with that which came to kill her. But again, the gods are a little different from us. See the gods would never be there without us but the gods don't die, we die. But what we're acting out, these forces of love and hate that we're acting out, they are immortal. So the difference between us, the difference between me and love and me and hate is that hate will be here after me and was here before me. And I'm just now acting out love and hate.

[57:20]

But I do that no matter what, but if I pay homage to it, then I'm paying homage to that which also appreciates me. The universe is asking me to live, but I have to pay respect to the universe, otherwise, even though I'm acting out its own forces, it still will not be happy with me. Yes? were running away. So you cut the story a little bit, a little bit off. Well, he's Mark Sooners. He killed all the suitors. Oh, I don't mean the suitors. He's a friend of the suitors. Yeah, a friend of the suitors. Had left the field and were no longer a challenge.

[58:24]

He still wanted it. Right. Now this, the biological forces said, uh-uh, stop right there. And he wanted them, but they said no. And of course, if he had killed everyone, then there's no more fun. There's no more fun, and there's also no possibility of making peace. If you kill everybody, you can't make peace. You can't make peace, so it removes a lot of things from the game. So, in the final act, because it's sort of like a pecking order, once the animals understand who's on top, who's on the bottom, fighting to stop, the animal on top doesn't kill them. Well, in the normal course of animals you don't, because you stop. You stop, and that's the nature of the way it works. And that's what Athena was telling, but still he didn't pay attention. But then she really told him, and he finally got it. But the point is, there's this thing called momentum, right? There's a thing called momentum, where you go too far.

[59:28]

Well fortunately we have something called shame, and things like shame and fear are quite helpful. What else do we have? Ah, some other stuff. But where's the emptiness in all that stuff? Where's the emptiness? It's all empty. But how do you know if you're really in that emptiness or if you're just in ruins? Or else it's not aware of itself. How do you know in which state of mind you actually are? If you act out of delusion, or if you act out of emptiness? Well, you always ... any action is delusion. Okay? And if you realize that, you've realized emptiness. If you can see delusion as such, you understand emptiness. And this thing about the psyche that I'm bringing up is that unless we address this material we cannot calm the mind, and if we can't calm the mind we cannot appreciate the emptiness of this whole show.

[60:49]

So Odysseus too, you know, the forecast of him was when he gets back and kills the suitors then he has to make elaborate It's super all-time sacrifices. And then he may be able to live his life. He may be able to die in peace. So he gets home and he has to kill these suitors. They will kill him if he doesn't kill them. And he also comes back in rags. If he came back shining, they would have fought him and killed him. But he came back in rags. And then he killed them before they realized who he was. But they would have killed him if they knew who he was, and he couldn't have beaten them. But then after he kills them, still, then the families come. But the gods are on the side of him because these boys were naughty boys. So the gods were on his side.

[61:53]

But still, he can't kill all the relatives, but he was going to. And the point I'm trying to bring up here is that Odysseus, from the beginning to this book to the end, is that he's a killer all the way through. the whole time, he doesn't stop being the killer, the contender, the great strategist, the great tactician. He doesn't stop doing that all the way through the book, but he is a keenly noble creature among beings, but he doesn't get over this habit. He doesn't stop being the way he always was. He doesn't see a higher way to achieve his aims besides killing. No, he does, but the killing instinct within him remains. The contending quality remains. There is a contending quality that the gods want to see manifest in this world. And up there in a small form, it is.

[62:56]

Manjushri Bodhisattva is a killer. He kills. He cuts. That's not the whole story. There's also Avalokiteshvara that connects with all beings. But one side of it is a killer, a contender, somebody who says, that's bullshit. Somebody who says, no, I'll take care of that. There is that side of life. gods want to see it happening here, therefore they keep putting it into, or these mortal forces of biology keep instilling hatred and killing instinct into living beings, some people more than others. But it happens, person after person, animal after animal, plant after plant.

[63:58]

It is part of the immortal drama that these forces want to see happening. But if you don't respect this setup, if you don't pay homage to it, then these things are going to backfire and you're not going to be able to be calm and you're not going to be able to realize that it's all empty and that reality is uniform. That doesn't mean you stop being the biological creature you have always been. You keep having these forces within you. But part of our, I think many of us have the tendency to think we're going to get over this stuff and go beyond it. Well, if you look at the ancient lore, Buddhist, Greek, whatever it is, I haven't seen that story yet, of getting over your basic human quality.

[65:03]

But there is a thing called coming home, and there is a thing called getting lost. And he got lost for not paying homage, and he got lost for gloating over his own fighting powers. When he killed the god of the seas, he had to do it. When he killed the son of the god of the seas who was munching on his own men, killing them in the most distasteful way, he had to do it. He could have just done it and said, thank you to the gods afterwards and excused, asked for forgiveness for his horrendous acts. But he didn't. He said, I did this. Tell everybody my name. I killed this great giant. Then he got in big trouble for that. As long as there's not somebody home,

[66:06]

These forces are just playing what's happening, and nobody's going to get hurt. But if somebody's wrong, then greed, then Aphrodite and Athena, when they function in us, will cause lots of trouble. Then love, lust, affectionate madness, which is immortal, and contending, then they will cause us to be sent away from home for a long, terrible journey, if somebody's home when these things happen. But Odessia isn't really a person. In a sense, he's just a contender, and there's no person in addition to the contender. But if there's somebody there, if there's a self clinging to that contention, then this contention is extremely harmful.

[67:12]

If nobody's home, it's okay. It's just anger. But for somebody at home, the anger is... you hold on to it. You own it. But these forces are there, they're going to waft through our lives for the rest of the time. They're not going to stop. Because these forces are looking for some place, some stage to act themselves out. They're looking for some stage to act themselves out. And we are sitting ducks. We are places where they act themselves out. If there's no one home, who's paying homage? Homage paying. Sometimes called the causal nexus, sometimes called emptiness is pain. I was reading D.T.

[68:21]

Suzuki several years ago and he said, he said, Zen is not just psychological, it's not just psychology. And I thought, hmm, that's weird, I didn't think it was psychology at all. And someone else could also say Soto Zen is not just spirituality. It's not just spirituality, it's also psychology. Some people think Zen is just psychology, just deals with the psyche. It doesn't just deal with the psyche. But some people think it's just spirituality. It's not just spirituality. Like yesterday I was talking to Catherine about the Rinzai way of giving lectures. One of the styles is that the lecturer sits in front of the Buddha and faces the Buddha and then the monks face each other like that.

[69:24]

And basically they sleep. And I saw this picture when I first started studying Zen of that style of lecture, and I looked at those monks just facing that way with their eyes down, and this guy, I don't know how old he was, but anyway, this bald-headed guy sitting up in this chair with his glasses on reading a book, and I just thought how exquisitely irrelevant he looked. It's like there was no connection between him and the monks, they're just like totally empty of any psychological interrelating. And there was something I liked very much about that lack of relationship. But that's just one style. Another style is that relationship is everything. But actually Zen is both. If you take away the forms, Zen would just be psychoanalysis. But again, I think the tendency in the last decade or two in Zen in America has been to take away psychology and to just leave the spiritual side, the emptiness of all this, and how it would totally transcend human relationships.

[70:42]

But I'm sort of dredging up the psychological again, okay? I'm bringing this guy named Odysseus back in. And I'm noticing that he doesn't get off his trip. He stays being basically the same person all the way through, but he does get lost and he does get home. And he finally does hear what's appropriate, but he's really in some ways stupid. In his fighting, he's stupid. And he's the foremost in that area. But without this kind of stupidity there would be no universe. The universe is the result of living beings, of deluded creatures living their lives. This is what produces the universe. And the universe produces the living beings.

[71:48]

It's a cycle, it's called samsara. It doesn't have a beginning and it doesn't have an end. Although, you know, they say the universe is cooling off in some number of billion years, it's going to be, you know. It's the kind of address of enlightenment. But it's not the end? No, it's just kind of like a motel or something. You will be soon, don't worry. Tentatively nirvana is the address of enlightenment. It's the best place to put it, but it's not there. It has no abode and it's nothing in itself and yet it happens and it's a big deal for us people.

[72:59]

But we have to recognize that we are people, and we have these forces running through us, and these are not just our trip. These have been going on from the beginningless time and will continue forever. We should respect them. We should be aware of them. And at the same time, not indulge ourselves in them. What's the balance? If you respect the gods, they'll be nice to you. If you indulge yourself, they'll be mean to you. They eat you up. They'll eat you up. But if you pretend like they're not there, they'll eat you up too. Either way, they'll get you. Denying or indulging in these psychic forces. But they're not going to end. However, they're constantly sitting there, available for emptying. You can empty them at any moment. It's up to you. Well for example, let's say you're Odysseus and you pay, after you get home and you're safe, you say thank you very deeply to Athena, okay?

[74:28]

You make great offerings to Athena, okay? This is already recognizing your contentious quality of your being and paying homage to your own killer instinct. Okay? But then to kill all the people that are running away, that's indulging it. Do you understand? There's a limit, you just stop at a certain point. In our intention, we can take a breathing in place. With the true merit of this way, to the whole world, These are my brothers.

[75:40]

I vow to swing with them. Do tend them far and accessible. I vow to lend them. Dark days are anomalous. I vow to enter them. Love's way is unsurpassable. Oh

[76:33]

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